


Stare Decisis

by StPaulClouds



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Universe - Non-Magical, Anxiety Attacks, Eventual Happy Ending, F/F, F/M, Homophobia, Just two idiots finding their way back together, M/M, Modern AU, New York AU, Past Child Abuse, Past Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-14
Packaged: 2020-12-14 07:16:03
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,877
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21011870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StPaulClouds/pseuds/StPaulClouds
Summary: Remus and Sirius meet again after ten years without any contact at all. Because of Sirius, when they were in college Remus was badly beaten leaving him with chronic pain and scars all over his body. Sirius is in the process of establishing a shelter for homeless lgbt youth and needs lawyer Remus’ help setting up a foundation to take care of the place as well as establishing scholarship programs for its occupants.





	1. Prima Facie

After a long battle to get his inheritance from his crazy family after his sadistic bitch of a mother’s death, Sirius was elated. With that money in addition to the money his sweet uncle Alphard left him, he could finally realize his dream of opening a shelter for homeless lgbtq youth in Manhattan. The only thing tripping him up was some legal red tape and some pushback from the neighborhood of the property he bought to house the shelter. Just because it had previously been a church, the neighbors seemed to think it was “indecent” and “inappropriate” to house children who had been cast off by their parents or run away to escape abuse. Sirius thought their distaste probably also had something to do with the fact that property values in the area were insanely high and his plan might knock the surrounding houses down a couple hundred thousand dollars on the market, but so what? That same church used to be used for conversion therapy and the people who lived in the area did nothing to stop it. Frankly, in his opinion, if everyone lost money they didn’t even need in order to serve the greater good, that was just their karma catching up with them.  
A great nonprofit law firm in the area had agreed to take up his case as well as helping him get into contact with several organizations that could keep the shelter running after he died. He had enough money to keep the place running for about the next sixty years on his own, maybe longer with some prudent investing, but he wanted to be as sure as possible that even after he died, no child in his city would have to spend the night on the street, cold, alone, and unprotected just because they had the misfortune of being born into a family like the one he’d been saddled with.  
“Ah, you must be Mr. Black!” said a handsome man with blinding teeth, reaching out to shake his hand “I’m Gilderoy. I believe you spoke with my secretary on the phone. I’m one of two lawyers working your case. Let’s get started, shall we?” he said with a wink  
Sirius was overcome with the uneasy feeling he had seen this man before. Shaking his hand he said,”Sounds great! Will I be meeting the other lawyer on my case today? I’d like to get everything started as quickly as possible if you don’t mind Mr... I’m sorry, I don’t think I caught your last name.”  
Gilderoy’s smile faltered  
“Lockhart. Gilderoy Lockhart. I believe our families used to run in the same circles. I’m actually not sure if he’s in today, he may be out doing some work on another project I’m spearheading.”  
_Ah, so that’s what it was_, he thought. Gilderoy Lockhart was from a family of new money social climbers his parents absolutely despised. Sirius had only ever seen him peripherally as he was sneaking out of stuffy galas his mother forced him to go to.  
He lead Sirius into his office and pulled out a stack of papers thicker than his arm and set them down on the desk. “Naturally most of what we’ll be having you do is just signing things, waivers and things like that, we’ll handle the rest. If you’ll get started on this stack I’ll go and check up on my colleague who’s handling the easier parts of your case.” Gilderoy practically ran out of the room as Sirius settled in for a long read.  
It took all of ten minutes for him to realize he was signing papers for some sort of shelter corporation in the Bahamas rather than anything to do with the homeless shelter. He poked his head out the door to try to get some help and was immediately greeted by the loudest lime green pantsuit he had ever seen in his whole life. He was struck by the notion that if he lived in a post-apocalyptic hellscape where a zombie P. T. Barnum had come back and was advertising a freak show comprised mostly of loose organs that had mutated and become sentient and learned to jump through rings on their own, even he would never wear something so heinously tacky and loud. So loud, in fact, that it took Sirius a minute to realize that the person in the pantsuit was actually talking to him.  
“...Mr. Black, are you alright?”  
“Um... Yeah... where did Mr. Lockhart get to? I need his help with a couple of these forms.”  
The young lady in the abomination against nature winced. “He actually just ran out for the day. Family emergency I think. I can help you with those though.” She walked into the office, took one glance at the stack of papers, picked them all up, and dropped them in the trash can. She then turned to the filing cabinets behind her, opened one, and pulled out a much slimmer stack. “Mr. Lockhart must have been... confused. This is all you actually need to sign for this project.” She said, very obviously exasperated and not trying very hard to hide it. “This just gives us power of attorney in this matter and allows us to advocate on your behalf with the city, the local homeowners association, and the licensing board.” “Thank you. So do you know if I’ll be meeting the other lawyer working my case today?”  
She sat down across from him and started typing away at Gilderoy’s computer. “It looks like he’s out of office for most of today at the embassy, but he has a meeting here in about...” she glanced down to her wrist ”... twenty minutes. You’re only scheduled to sign some things today so we can get the ball rolling on this stuff, but I bet if we pop in now you could meet him before his other clients get here.” She stood up and gestured for him to follow. Sirius was just starting to wonder what emergency Gilderoy had run out of the office to deal with when they reached the door. The girl rapped twice and opened the door a crack “Hey R-“  
“Oh, Dora! Thank goodness, exactly who I needed! Could you possibly call Mrs. Stevenson and reschedule with her for tomorrow? I’m this close to reaching a deal with the ambassador for those visas but I have to get back down there in the next five minutes because he has an appointment at four and I only came back because I grabbed the wrong bag on my way out this morning.”  
Sirius felt his blood freeze in his veins. That voice. That voice he would know anywhere. He felt his hand shake as he reached for the door and pushed it open. A flurry of tawny and charcoal was fluttering around behind the desk, gathering loose papers from stacks so numerous and tall they seemed to create new walls around the room. Battlements of manila folders being shuffled around threatened to fall over and take the whole office down with them.  
“Remus.”  
Hazel eyes flashed around to meet his and the whirlwind froze.  
“Sirius.”  
The lime blur apparently called Dora stepped into the room. “Oh good, you’ve met! Remus, this is that new client who’s starting the shelter in the old cathedral.”  
Remus’ face was expressionless. His posture was stiff and polite. He picked up one last folder, slid it into his attaché case, and turned to Dora.  
“Lovely. Like I said, could you please reschedule that meeting for me? I really do have to get going. Mr. Black, I believe we have an official meeting on Wednesday? I’ll see you then.” His voice was even and his steps were leisurely as he stepped around Dora, past Sirius, and walked out the front door of the office without a glance back.  
“Shit.” Sirius sank into the chair in front of the desk, thumped his head down on top of it, and waited to wake up from his own personal hell.  
“What the hell just happened there?” Dora said from behind him.  
“Signing those papers was all I had to do today right?”  
“Yeah.”  
“Cool. I’m going to get a drink.”  
“...Can I come?”  
“Don’t you have work?”  
“Not after this phone call.”  
“...Alright. Show me the best bar in this neighborhood and I’ll tell you about the night my life fell apart.”


	2. Ante

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sirius talks about himself a lot while very stressed and a little drunk, Tonks is just here for the drama.

“Alright, that’s four shots. If you’re not drunk enough to tell me now, you’ve got a drinking problem.”  
Sirius sighed. He had calmed down considerably in the time since they had gotten to the bar, but he could not for the life of him imagine why his sober self had promised to tell something so personal to a complete stranger.  
“Should I even be telling you this? For all I know, you’re just out to get blackmail material on your boss.”  
“I once brought Remus a new pair of pants because he tore his roller skating through the park. I have all the blackmail material I need. Spill.”  
Sirius smiled at the mental image of Remus hiding in the bushes trying not to fall over on his skates.  
“Okay, but if he asks, you know nothing, got it?” Tonks (who had told him that she hated to be called Dora on the walk over) nodded.  
“Ten years ago, Remus and I went to college together. I got in because I was a legacy, he got in because he was so smart. We were just going in to our senior year when I finally got the nerve to ask him out. James, our other friend, had been hounding me about my crush since freshman year, but it wasn’t until Peter let slip that Remus liked me too that I went for it. So we started dating, and it was great for a long time. Until that little shithead Snape found out about us. He threatened to tell my parents, my brother, all the people who could ruin my life, unless I used my family influence to get him into this fraternity that the whole Black family has been in since like the beginning of time. So I brought him to one of their parties right? I introduced him around to all the guys I’ve known since I was in kindergarten. I let him get all settled in and comfortable, and then I...” Sirius stopped, unsure if it was a good idea to tell the next part. He motioned to the bartender for another shot and continued.  
“I pulled one of them aside and told them he was gay and in love with my little brother Regulus and I left.”  
“No!”  
“Yeah... I knew they would tear him apart. What I didn’t know was that Remus and James had a study group with some members that night. Remus came down to see what the commotion was and Snape told the truth and turned the mob on him. James just thought the party had gotten out of hand, so by the time he came down, Remus was...” Sirius took the shot the bartender had brought him and covered his face with his hands.  
“James called an ambulance and dragged Remus outside. He was in a coma for two weeks. He didn’t really want anything to do with me after that.”  
“Holy shit, Sirius. That’s incredibly fucked up.”  
“Oh, it gets worse. Snape threatened a lawsuit against that fraternity so they let him in and said that Remus started the whole thing. Remus lost his scholarships and had to quit school. I think he came back later and finished like a year late. Regulus was in that fraternity and was there that night. He told my parents, and they stopped paying for school and kicked me out.”  
“I’ve actually heard parts of this story before I think.” Tonks looked at him like she wasn’t sure she should be there. “This is the story of why Remus has to be on medication right?”  
“Yeah. James told me that he has to be on painkillers, probably for the rest of his life because of what I did. So, if I never see you again it’s because Remus has decided to shuffle me over to some other company so he doesn’t have to look at me anymore. And you know what? I don’t blame him at all.”  
“I don’t think he’ll do that. Not his style.”  
“No? He’ll just suddenly have another meeting to go to every time I’m in then and leave me to Mr. Lockheart.”  
“Ha!” Tonks picked up her beer and took a long drink. “That’ll never happen either. Gilderoy doesn’t really do anything. At all. Ever.”  
“So there was no emergency today.”  
“Oh, I’m sure there was. An emergency hair appointment, an emergency fitting, a pomeranian emergency...”  
“A pomeranian emergency?”  
“Oh he has three, you will definitely meet them. The point is, Remus will probably be the one handling your case. He’s had a lot of difficult clients in the past, and he’s never quit on anyone.”  
“I don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse.”  
“So what happened to you?”  
“What do you mean?”  
“You said your parents kicked you out, what happened to you afterward?”  
“Oh!” Sirius grinned brightly. This was the only good part of the story.  
“James’ parents took me in. James was pissed at me, of course, but he’s too good to ever let someone suffer. He didn’t know right away though because he wasn’t talking to me. Only Peter still was after what I did, and probably only because he wasn’t there to see the aftermath of what I did. Peter found out I was sleeping on campus and showering in the school gym because my ID still worked and immediately told James. He’s such a rat. Anyway, James found out, told his parents, and dragged me to his house without saying a word to me the whole way. It was terrifying. I got to his house thinking ‘oh this is it, he’s gonna take me upstairs and push me out the window’ and Mrs. Potter was there and she just started explaining where things were and acting like I had arranged to live with them for the semester a long time ago. The Potters were the best people. They never even let me thank them for letting me stay.”  
“How long did James stay mad?”  
“Like a month. We barely talked at all, he spent as much time on campus as possible.”  
“What changed?” Sirius grinned again.  
“Lily did. Before she never gave him the time of day, but she ran into Peter one day visiting Remus in the hospital and he told her all about what Snape did and what James did. She had been friends with Snape up until that point so she thought James was the worst person. When she found out Snape was not just a homophobe, but a conniving homophobe who used someone’s secrets to get in with the people who had treated both of them like shit for years, she went straight from the hospital to Snape’s dorm and screamed at him in front of everyone. She found James and apologized for ever siding with Snape. He came home freaking out and ran right into my room to get my advice like we’d been talking the whole time.”  
“Wow. And now they’re married with a kid.”  
“Ye- Hey! How did you know that?”  
“Lily and Harry come in once a week to have lunch with Remus. And Remus leaves the city to babysit every other week.” Sirius slammed his hands on the bar.  
“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me.”  
“What?”  
“I go up to babysit every other week! They told me date night was every other week!”  
Tonks cackled. “I wonder if Remus knows.” Sirius let his head fall onto the bar and crossed his arms around his head.  
“Maybe I’ll find out Wednesday. Oh, god, I have to see him again Wednesday. What am I gonna do?”  
“I’m sure you don’t have anything to worry about. It’ll be three hours and he’ll be a complete professional the whole time.”  
“How do you know?”  
“If he can face down the leader of the Westboro Baptist Church with a smile on his face, nothing you can do will phase him.”  
“Holy shit, he did that?”  
“Yeah, he helped a client get a restraining order against them, but he had to prove they intended to hurt him specifically.”  
“That’s insane!”  
“You think that’s insane, he got it done in under an hour.”  
“Ugh” Sirius said from his new permanent home, facedown on the bar, “He’s so good. How am I ever gonna face him?”  
“Hey! You’re good too! You’re starting a homeless shelter! That’s nothing to sneeze at!” Tonks was, apparently, one of those enthusiastic drunks. “I bet it’ll just be one kind of awkward meeting and then a bunch of totally amicable meetings.”  
“I hope so. Otherwise this is gonna be a long and painful process.”  
Sirius paid for their drinks and poured Tonks into a cab. He got another for himself and heard himself giving Mr. and Mrs. Potter’s old address accidentally before correcting himself and giving the address to Uncle Alphard’s old apartment, where he lived now.

**Author's Note:**

> I probably won't have much time to update now that I'm in school, but I started writing this back in February. The law and the setting in this will both be dubious at best because I am neither a lawyer, nor a New Yorker.


End file.
